THIS WEEK (35/2018) IN THE FINNISH GAME INDUSTRY

Play Finland’s Weekly Newsletter
In this report we will combine  week 35/2018 from the Finnish Game Industry.
News are gathered from the Play Finland group posts during the week. That is why we recommend you to post by yourself (however not flood) your Finnish Game Industry related news to the group. It also guarantees that your news will be visible in the weekly newsletter /news compilation. Play Finland is at the moment one of the main channels for sharing information inside the industry.

 
Events:

• 6th Sept. Musiikin lisenssoinnin ABC / Ilmoittaudu mukaan Music Finlandin valmennukseen
• 8th September Intuitive Digital Workflow with Loish / Turku
• 11-12th September Pocket Gamer Connects
  • Exclusive 20% discount using code FINLAND20.
  • At this year’s #PGCHelsinki for the first time we are having IGDA Finland Mentor Café, sponsored by GameAnalytics!
    Sign up as either a mentor or a mentee and be part of the first Mentor Café in Finland!
  • IGDA Finland and Pocket Gamer want everyone to have a chance to take part in upcoming #PGCHelsinki event, no matter your location, and to make everything more accessible and convenient for our friends outside the Helsinki area we are organizing bus rides from hubs all around the country. The buses, provided by Pocket Gamer, are completely free of charge – you just need to register on the form below and turn up!We will need to know for the total numbers for the buses so please register by Friday August 31 to grab your seat. First come – first served!
    => Buses will go from Jyväskylä & Tampere, Turku, and Kouvola & Kotka, please register here: (NOTE: THE BUS TICKET DOES NOT INCLUDE ENTRY TO THE CONFERENCE – you will need a conference ticket to get access to the event(s).
• 12th Sept. Helsinki Unreal Evening
• THU 13th Sept. The Esports Research Project at the University of Tampere are hosting a free afternoon seminar in Helsinki on Thursday the 13th of September (one day after PGC). Tickets are free, but please book via Eventbrite, as we have limited space.
• Oct 4-5th Northern Game Summit – NGS / Kajaani
• 18th Oct. Gaming and esports event, Grail Quest – Pelifestari 2018 / Turku
• October 19th Monetization in Games: Past, Present and Future – ft. John Romero / Helsinki
• 24th-26th October, Join Neogames and the Nordics at Game Connection Europe / Paris
• 19-23 November 2018, Nanjing: IMGA Judging Sessions, China Game Design Seminar and the Awards Ceremony & Parties
• 22-24th May Nordic Game Conference

See also The Game Industry Events calendar: http://www.neogames.fi/en/events/eventcalendar
Open jobs:

• Want to be a part of creating a game about grand events with dire consequences? Check out Iceflake Studios Oy‘s open positions and see if there is one for you.
• More jobs at gamesjobs.fi

 
Releases;

• Cave Digger: Riches was released in Steam and Oculus store
• You can pre-order Kimble Games Drifting Bike on Appstore
• “ROBBER wheels” on tehty vajaassa viikossa GameBoy-teemalla. Toivottavasti lähdet koeajolle! Kyseessä on kiihdytysajopeli, jossa auton viritys näyttelee isoa roolia. Pelaa suoraan selaimessa.
• Merge Games and Still Running proudly announce The Walking Vegetables: Radical Edition, a mad-cap, top-down 80s shooter, coming to PlayStation4, Nintendo Switch and Xbox One this fall. Get hands on at booth #6916 at PAX West.

Announcements;

• Ex-Rovio EVP Wilhelm Taht joins Dodreams board of directors

Other News;

• Speaker Spotlight: Game art lead Juuso Mattila reveals how Wargaming Helsinki built 100 tanks with three people
• Suomalainen pelialan startup Psyon Games tähtää maailmalle – “Yhdistää rohkeasti tieteen ja pelit”
• ROT-8 is an autonomous exploration and survey robot in Planetrism. Settlers can build them with minimal resources, and set a swarm of these to automatically chart areas and find prospective resource locations.
• Very first Finnish PSVR game: rd Eye Studios’ Downward Spiral: Horus Station is coming to PS4 on September 18th.
• Game Art Co. in collaboration with the Helsinki Games Factory has started interviewing game artists, designers, programmers, producers and entrepreneurs in the Finnish games industry. interviews include a visit from game writer Anne Toole who’s credits include CURSE OF THE PHARAOHS for ASSASSIN’S CREED: ORIGINS and HORIZON ZERO DAWN. Soundcloud & iTunes If you are an industry professional in the area of game art, producing, design, coding etc. and would like to give an interview please get in contact. nick.sweetman@gmail.com
• Paid loot boxes and lootchests disabled for players in Belgium
• Skills Finland is looking for a 3D Digital Game Art competitor for the World Skills competition in Kazan, Russia 2019. Test day September 14th at Stadin ammattiopisto, Helsinki.
  Requirements:
  – max. 22 yrs in 2019
  – skills: 2D painting, 3D (Maya or 3dsMax), 3D sculpting (Mudbox or ZBrush), UV unwrapping, rigging, animation, export to game engine
• NGS is looking for more submissions to this years’ Nordic Game Discovery Contest, so I thought I’d post my SUPER AMAZING marketing pitch here.
• Subsolar Entertainment is passionately working on their first game project called Avernus, which is coming out in early 2019. Check the social medias for a sneak peak of the game and also like and follow if you feel like it.
• SHIVER GAMES ANNOUNCES LUCIUS III. The Son of the Devil takes his final journey in Lucius III, that is set to release in late 2018.
• Nopia Oy‘s retro game-inspired series will begin crowdfunding this week
• Gregory Pellechi  with another episode of The Writing Game, with a look at the intents of players, developers and writers and how they affect one another. Video & Podcast
• Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki conference schedule revealed
• Five for Friday: Games. Finland is synonymous with its thriving games scene. Here are five more reasons why.

This is the weekly summary of news from the Finnish game  industry. If you want to have your news on the list, post them on the Play Finland Facebook group. The summary will be posted every Friday afternoon. Check out previous week’s list.